Anybody have a Sprinter or know about them?
 

Im looking at delivery vehicles and thinking of a 05-07 Sprinter. Looks like a few manufacturers made them.
MPG seems pretty good compared to a box truck.
I like how they drive and the layout but have heard of people having all kinds of issues with them.

fixx
 

the older 5 cylinder ones are the keepers..i have a friend that has a 07?? with the 6 cylinder diesel...its in the dealer at leaste 2 times a month..the dealer has replaced about every sensor on the vehicle including wire harness's and the check engine light still comes on..they refuse to lemon law it..the 5 cylinder diesels are better on fuel as well.

Do a search on sprinters on here. I had the same question. I bought a 2012 Nissan NV 2500 High Roof V6. Very happy.

Have sprinter parts used if anyone needs, pm me ...the mercedes/dodge

They are good for light duty work in and around town as well as over the road. They are fairly manueverable in tight despite the wheelbase and get decent mileage for this class of vehicle. I seen them used as private passenger, school bus, cargo delivery, race vehicles, fed-ex delivery trucks, even mobile labs.

Gino has a small fleet of them for business in S Florida

I recently purchased another Ford box truck and looked at the Sprinters a few times before this purchase. The payload seems to be quite a bit less on them and the salesman told me with what I would be hauling I would probably see 14-15mpg. For me I couldn't justify the additional cost over the Ford. One of our sub-contractors has one and it's in the shop quite a bit. Just last week he had to have the diesel exhaust fluid pump changed.

You planning on starting your own RPS?

We still have one 07' left that we use as a service van.

We wont be buying any more of them.

I have had 5 or 6 of them, still have a 2006 left. Its a good one.
Some of them are lemons and some are good.

The motor is pretty good its everything else. The brakes are metallic and have to be replaced alot.

All the parts are expensive, 120.00 Oil change we use Synthetic, so it can go 10k between changes.

Im waiting for the new ford transit coming in about 6 months.

Actually a guy is selling a fedex "at home" route. Im thinking of it and having somebody run it a couple days and I would run it the other 3 days. I should start a new thread and see if anybody knows/is a fedex contractor. Been reading online and have read good and bad about them.

Maybe Gino will see this/ make a comment here if he has a bunch of them.

I could use a second job. Just gotta find time to do it. Lol

Have an 05 that's loaded with everything but the kitchen sink for work. Gets great fuel mileage.

How has it been for you? What motor is in yours? Thanx

All my trucks are from phase out from Fed-Ex!...you onto something

Depending on the quantity of packages delivered daily you may consider the little Nissan delivery.

Not sure about Fed-ex specifically, but I did look into UPS. The buy in was steep (300K+) but the money appeared to be right. I would be sure to talk to Fed-ex specific route owners, I was looking at a delivery route of any type, (bread, mail, whatever) and they varied WIDELY from brand to brand... Some are cash cows, some you are a slave. No first hand exp with Fed-ex on my end.

That being said, if your help is cheap you might be able to clean up, but most of the time adding an employee is a profit killer, other than a day here or there if you are on vacation. I decided against it because I didn't want to be committed 6 days a week, 12+ hours a day. If you can afford to purchase 3+ decent routes and put someone you trust in the second and third seats without paying them more than mid teens hourly, you might be able to make some serious coin.

Like others have stated the engines are bullet proof, everything else is crap. I had one with only 75k that needed a trans. If your dead set on one i would get the freightliner, they are usually 3-5k cheaper at the auction. They are harder to finance so that makes them cheaper. If the weight requirement fit the nissan nv are great vans.

we work on three large fleets of them...the engines are NOT bullet proof by no means, all companys have had total engine failures in earlier ones that have been well maintained in 150k mile range, at that point they are not worth fixing due to cost, now we have to drive them to and from 50 miles one way...the new ones drive and ride great...best of all..the ford are the biggest POS to drive van wise out there...still 1980 suspension..and it shows..GM's a lot better on the road...only mercedes makes the sprinter, they were sold under dodge when they owned chrysler, when they sold it they took away the sprinters, they come in to the country unbadged and are made into freightliners before sent out to which ever dealer is getting them. so back to your question, I love the way they drive/run and the fuel mileage they get, but no way I would buy a older 07 or so without one great powertrain warranty......

That 3.0L V6 diesel is the exact engine used in the R350 wagon 07 up. It is impressive how they tune that thing up and run it in a 3500 chassis. A vendor that serviced a yard truck for us loves his 2010 and said he has run at 14K lbs and it did well on mileage too. Sorry I don't remember the numbers he threw out on the MPG. He had a sensor fail around 86K miles but that is all the trouble he had with it.

We have many in our fleet, (rentals) great mileage, comfy to drive, maneuverable in the city, The bad is they eat breaks, u joints are not greaseable, we have not had any major motor/tranny issues, we have a few with close to 200k still running down the road, with that said i would think the 180-200k mark is time to get rid of them, keep them washed the rot out bad behind all the plastic molding , make sure you do not overfill the oil!!!! the tire pressure sensors are very sensitive also...

As far as Fed Ex, have a friend that runs with them, seems to be doing very well,

I am a servicer for fedex franchisees here in the cape....

My guys pay their guys by boxes dropped, but the franchise guys get paid on mileage.

As far as maintenance goes....

The gm workhorse chassis is a pain in the ass. King pins for front, international for power but gm proprietay engine management....bull sheet.....

We have several sprinters (Mercedes powered) that come in, and out, and back in, and back out....oh yeah....and back in. They suck...period. The frigging dipstick tool was a hundred four just to check the oil level....and forget about ac on that bucket....

Nissan hightop is awesome.

International dt 4 series trucks are awesome too. A lot of the medium duty tow truces are built on that platform...

Nissan NV are great until the manifolds crack- and oh yeah....the cats are built INTO the manifolds and sold as one piece. The part itself is well over 1K and they are a pain to replace.

Same system the titan and armada use.
Done 2 on my titan at 60K while under warranty- bills was 3.5K.

Look at the nissan forums- check it out. Lots of complaining.

Wife has a brand new sprinter 3500 Dually- very nice van - revs too high has a 4:18 rear end - but still gets about 16MPG at 75. and about 15 in town. If I had chosen a lower rear end I'td probably get 2MPG more.

Uncle Dave

Brand new."....:party-smiley-004:

fixx
 

just droped it off again at the dealer again for the 356th time,,,they gave him a life time warr lol..

They are somewhere around 75 to 80 delivery trucks in our terminal and only one of them is a sprinter. All the Contractors got rid of them all. The one sprinter that's left is an 07 and he's had good luck with that one. I just bought a 2013 Chevy 3500 box van. I sure looked hard at that Mercedes sprinter from ARI but I was worried about it after the warranty would run out and it was so much more expensive.


The Nissan 2500 NV Hi Roof with the V6 was the only way I would own one. My driver is reporting to me that he's getting 15 mpg and it has 16,000 miles on it with one flat tire is the only problem I've had. It rides and drives great. I'm with Uncle Dave on the V8, I couldn't take the 10 maybe MPG though.

Genu-wine.....paper plates and all....

After driving a ford van and a chevy van for years this is a major step forward.

Ergonomics, handling, braking- way better all the way around. Would have preferred it not to be because I was reluctant to pay the freight and wanted to wait for the transit connect with the ecoboost.

UD